Sit down with Matej Lancaric and get the answer to the question on everyone’s mind: Is user acquisition dead?
Matej is a UA consultant with 10+ years of experience. He has global launched 32 games in the last 4 years, produces the “Brutally Honest” UA newsletter, and is also the host of the no-bullshit gaming podcast “Two & A Half Gamers.”
We chat with Matej about the current state of attribution and privacy, whether SKAN is even worth using, surprisingly effective UA tactics and channels, and the impact of regulators on marketing.
Guests
Matej Lancaric
Full Podcast Summary
The dominant narrative in marketing
- Currently the perspective of the space is that UA is dead, mobile F2P is dead, and even web is dead. But we have to move on and do something better.
- The current progress of the market is slow because of the effect of the economic downturn and the upcoming recession.
Advice on the current downturn for game developers
- Try to experiment on different channels and games.
- Aim for short payback periods rather than a year or two.
Why are companies killing ad spend on profitable games?
- Larger companies have a “disconnect” when it comes to different teams. The finance teams just see the daily numbers while the UA teams are looking a bit farther ahead at what those numbers will become.
- The current trend for many companies these days is that they only look at one KPI or short-term goal without seeing the bigger picture of long-term higher profits.
- Smaller teams in the industry win most of the time because of their ability to adapt quickly.
Budgeting and modeling
- Look into your daily spend and compare it to your daily revenue.
- For iOS campaigns, any strategy will involve some amount of modeling.
All about SKAN
- There is utility in using SKAN for benchmarking, revenue review, and other campaign optimization items.
- There are different types of models and strategy that can lead you to success.
If UA’s dead, where is it most dead?
- Facebook has decreased in quality. It still kind of works, but it used to be 80% of the budget. Now, it’s only 20-30% of the budget.
- Facebook’s still part of every healthy marketing stack. There are instances though where Facebook is being optimized out in favor of other ad networks.
- Snapchat has been making a surprising comeback the past few months.
Tools and tactics for UA buyers
- Automation
- Automation can help depending on the number of campaigns you’re handling and it saves you time for many tasks for your teams. It really depends on the need for automation tools.
- Mixed Media Modeling
- If you have a small company, there is no chance you can actually do a medium mix model.
- This can be helpful for the c-level to understand the impact of business and separate that out from the UA. But overall, MMM hasn’t provided a lot of contribution for day-to-day work.
- Artificial Intelligence
- AI won’t replace UA, but it’s really helpful.
- Web3 user acquisition
- Part of the UA mix includes communities, partnerships, and DAOs.
Regulators in the Market
- Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft is now being contested in court.
- Google is being sued by the DOJ for being anti-competitive.
- Apple and Google lawsuit
Key takeaways
- Learn the current trend right now as UA manager and learn how to overcome these challenges.
- Don’t be scared to spend against iOS. Try different things if you can, and your cash flow allows you too.
